A New York strip club is hoping to be spared a £78,000 tax bill by claiming the lap dances it offers are ‘art’.

New York strip club Nite Moves argues lap dancing is a form of art (Picture: AFP)

Nite Moves argues it should be exempt because the so-called ‘couch sales’ are ‘live dramatic or musical arts performances’ equivalent to theatre or ballet.

Referring to a famous Moscow-based ballet company, Andrew McCullough, an attorney for the suburban Albany strip joint, said: ‘If you saw what these dancers do, you’d be saying, “It’s not the Bolshoi, but it’s good”.’

The strip club’s bid is being backed by a cultural anthropologist who has studied exotic dance and visited Nite Moves.

Arguments were being heard at the city’s Court of Appeals this week and a decision on whether the club should be charged tax is due next month.

‘It’s definitely a form of art,’ one dancer at Nite Moves told the AP news agency. ‘Some girls are up there practising for hours when nobody’s in here.’

However state solicitor Robert Goldfard argued: ‘If the women kept their clothes on, no one would be coming to this bar for the dance performances.’

A ruling in favour of Nite Moves could spark a wave of tax claims from the estimated 200 adult nightclubs across the state.